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Violin concerto - An American in Paris (2011)

Dvorak, Gershwin

Liza Ferschtman, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra

Mario Venzago

When Antonín Dvorák first submitted a number of compositions in 1874 to qualify for a state stipendium, Eduard Hanslick, an influential music critic, but also a member of the assessment committee, was pleasantly surprised. Dvorak was awarded the grant and could spend all his time on composing. In the next years he again applied for the grant, and it was again awarded. When he appliedin 1877, he even received a personal letter from Hanslick, advising the young composer to get in touch with Johannes Brahms, who had been a member of the committee for several years. Brahms held Dvor?ák’s work in high regard and wanted to meet him.They indeed met shortly afterwards and soon became good friends. Brahms brought Dvorák in contact with other composers, publishers and famous musicians. One of them was the renowned violinist Joseph Joachim, a good friend of Brahms for many years. Dvorák was invited to the Joachim home in Berlin, where he was cordially received. The violinist even organised a home concert for the first performance of Dvorák’s String Sextet and the Tenth String Quartet. The two men talked at great length, and Dvorák spoke of the violin concerto which he had recently started to compose. Joachim, who had not long before played the premiere of Brahms’s Violin Concerto, responded with enthusiasm. Dvorák spent the next few months labouring over the concerto and sent it to Joachim in the autumn of 1879.

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Liza Ferschtman

Dutch violinist Liza Ferschtman is known for her passionate performances, interesting programs and communicative qualities on stage. She is equally at home on the concert stage with concertos, chamber music, recitals and solo works. In 2006 she received the highest accolade awarded to a musician in the Netherlands, the Dutch Music Prize.

Born into a family of Russian musicians, Liza Ferschtman was constantly surrounded by music. One of her earliest major influences was the violinist Philipp Hirschhorn, a close family friend. She received her formal training from Herman Krebbers at the Amsterdam Conservatory, Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and David Takeno in London.

Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra

With 130 musicians the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is the largest orchestral organization in the Netherlands. Founded in 1985 as a merger of the Amsterdam Philharmonic, the Utrecht Symphony and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra continues the tradition of its predecessors in offering an attractive combination of accessible concert programs, in which works from the core repertoire are combined with contemporary music. The orchestra has a tradition in performing the music of Dutch composers and has commissioned and premiered works by Andriessen, Loevendie, Jeths, Franssens, van Onna, Hamburg, Kox, Koolmees and Ketting.

Mario Venzago

Mario Venzago was born in Zurich, studied in Zurich and Vienna with Hans Swarovsky and started his career as pianist of the Swiss broadcast station in Lugano. From 1986 to 1989 he was music director of the Heidelberg opera house and Philharmonic Orchestra and later served as chief conductor of the German Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Graz Opera, the Basque National Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, and the Swedish National Orchestra in Gothenburg. He was Artistic Director of the Baltimore Summer Music Fest and from 2002 – 2009 Music Director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. In 2010 he was named Principal Conductor of the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle and in the same year was appointed chief conductor of the Bern Symphony Orchestra, as well as Artist in Association with the Tapiola Sinfonietta. He is also “Schumann Guest Conductor” of the Du?sseldorfer Symphoniker and holds the position of Conductor Laureate of the Basel Symphony Orchestra

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Violin concerto - An American in Paris (2011)

Dvorak, Gershwin

Liza Ferschtman, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra

SA-CD.net

Northstar's first class DSD recording is natural and impeccably balanced as usual, in a pleasantly resonant but not reverberant acoustic, and a low noise floor. The soloist is portrayed as standing just in front of the orchestra, blending well with the orchestral sound without any obtrusive spotlighting; the violin tone is given plenty of air to develop.
...
A demonstration-worthy recording includes a stunningly well-focussed sound stage, notably in front to back perspective. I was thrilled by this reading in both sonics and performance and can't keep it out of my player.